Savage Son (7 page)

Detective Slot made sure to soak up all of this additional information about Bart Whitaker. He stopped, looked up at Hipp, and asked point-blank, “Son, were you a part of Bart’s plan to kill his parents?”

Fall 1998 to Spring 1999
Baylor University
Penland Residence Hall
South Fifth Street
Waco, Texas

John William “Will” Anthony was a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed newcomer to the state of Texas from the adjacent state of Arkansas. His first day on the campus of Baylor University was already an eye-opener. Even though he lived in Little Rock, somewhat of a metropolis, he had no idea what he was in store for in college.

Will was a bit of a self-proclaimed nerd. He loved movies, studying, and playing endless hours of video games. He was never good at making friends, and was worse than simply socially awkward. Needless to say, he was ecstatic to make fast friends with another fellow Penland Hall dorm mate, Justin Peters. The two young men shared the same passions of film, school, and video games. Will and Justin teamed up and became an inseparable duo.

It was only a matter of days before the duo became a trio.

One day during the first week of college, Will and Justin were returning to Will’s dorm room when they heard the familiar beckoning sound of starcrafts destroying unforeseen worlds, punctuated by the unmistakable and inevitable groans to follow.

“Shit!” the boys heard emanating from across the hall.

Will and Justin decided to investigate. They crossed the hall to eavesdrop on their neighbor. Sure enough, the unforgettable sounds of lasers firing and people screaming could be heard. The two young men stood up straight and smiled at one another. Will rapped on the door.

Nothing.

Will knocked again.

“Go away, I’m busy!” hollered a male voice from inside the dorm room.

Will was persistent. He continued to knock.

“Hold on.” The man inside sighed with exasperation. Suddenly the sounds of the video game dissipated. The door opened swiftly, as if a secret password had been uttered at a magic castle. “What do you want?” grumbled the occupant of the lair. The young man looked disheveled, and none too pleased to be disturbed of his quest.

“Hi, we heard your video game and—” Will began to speak before he was cut off.

“Look, if it’s too loud, I’ll turn it down.” The young man smirked in disgust and began to turn away and close the door on them.

“No, no, no. That’s cool,” called out Will before the man could shut his door. “We’re gamers, too!” he added eagerly.

The man stopped, turned back toward the two young men, and simply said, “Cool. C’mon in.”

Thus began the tight friendship of Will Anthony, Justin Peters, and Bart Whitaker.

Three gamers with a mutual passion—online video games. RTS—real-time strategy video games. Soon their time consisted of hanging out, watching movies, and playing video games together. “Basically being nerds,” Anthony described later.

The three gamers had made other friends during their first year at Baylor, but they were by far the closest among the group. It was always games, movies, skipping class.

Will Anthony never really felt comfortable at Baylor. “I always believe I went there more for my family than for myself. I just never really fit in there.” Bart and Justin also seemed to be cut from the same cloth. “I don’t think either one of them felt comfortable at Baylor,” Anthony recalled. “None of us fit in with the other students. You either had to be in a fraternity or you had to be really into a Christian lifestyle, what with being a big-time Baptist school and everything.”

Will, Bart, and Justin used to sit around and talk about what they considered to be the hypocrisy of many of the Baylor students. “Just typical church bullshit,” Anthony recalled. “These kids would be partying all week, skipping classes, doing drugs and getting drunk, or screwing around, and then when it came time to be the good little churchgoing monkeys, they were all bullshit. They acted like they never did anything wrong, and worse, they would look down on those who did not go to Baylor or those who weren’t Baptists. All that crap about going to Hell if you did not share their same belief systems. We just thought it was a load of horseshit.”

In addition to the overwhelming religious aspect of Baylor, another facet that played an important part on campus was that of the fraternities. “None of us were in a fraternity,” Anthony recalled. “And, of course, if you were not a part of the frat world, there was a whole ’nother group you were ostracized from.”

Bart and the boys preferred one another’s company and playing video games over everything and everyone else. Bart and Will, in particular, seemed to hit it off as time wore on. They spent many hours talking about their hopes, their goals, their dreams, and how they planned to achieve all of them. They also spoke about their families and friends back home and their other loved ones. They were very open about how they communicated with one another and were able to share practically everything with each other. They trusted each other implicitly.

Bart described his new friends as “people who were out of control” and “depressed and confused.” He added that he was “less self-conscious around them.” Finally he summed up their relationships as “Like attracts like. We just found each other.”

Bart and Will’s friendship grew as they hung out together more and more. Luckily, about halfway through their freshman semester, Will’s roommate dropped out of college and moved out of their dorm room. Will asked Bart if he wanted to move across the hall and in with him. Bart readily accepted the invitation and the two developed an even tighter bond.

Will also had a love of music. Playing music was his dream, and that was what he really wanted to do with his life. He played his guitar for Bart and also let him know he played piano. He wrote many of his own songs, and Bart was quite impressed with his roommate’s skills. Bart told Will about several friends of his in the music business down in Houston. He said he would introduce Will to them in hopes of providing a springboard for his musical aspirations. Bart was true to his word and took Will down to Houston to meet his friends; however, nothing came out of the meeting for Will. Nonetheless, Will was honored that Bart thought highly enough of his skills to make the introduction. He was impressed that Bart was a man of his word and not just someone who would blow smoke up his ass.

Over time, Bart and Will’s relationship became close enough to where Bart felt he could confide more personal information about himself to his roommate. He mainly spoke about his family back in Sugar Land. He would often complain to Will that his parents tended to favor his little brother, Kevin, over him. He believed it was because Kevin struggled more in school and needed the extra attention. Bart often felt like he was neglected, since he was more intelligent and more capable of handling himself than Kevin.

Will could sympathize. He, too, felt like he could never live up to his family’s expectations, albeit for different reasons than what Bart claimed. Will’s older sister was always the star in the Anthony family, as far as Will was concerned, and as far as his parents were concerned. She had a very successful college career and had translated that success to even more rewards in the working world. Everything came easy to her—grades, interpersonal communication skills, earning a living. Meanwhile, Will’s musical aspirations seemed to bring only disappointment for his family.

Bart and Will were two commiserating souls who “got” one another. They knew what it felt like to be on the outside peering in, even among their own family units. College life only shone the spotlight on their removal from the rest of the so-called “normal” world. Thus, they chose each other’s companionship and their big-boy toys, such as video games and music as their escapes.

One aspect of Bart’s family life that he occasionally spoke about was his parents’ religious devotion. Bart did not consider himself to be a Christian, and he complained to Will that it was difficult not being one in his family. It further compounded his outsider status within his family.

Bart and Will skipped classes one day to play video games. It was a day just like any other during the spring semester at school. Suddenly Bart turned to Will and said, “I want to kill my parents.”

Will laughed. “Yeah, me too.” He continued focusing on the screen, where the video game held his real reality.

Bart continued playing as well. After nearly half a minute, he said it again. “I want to kill my parents.” He glanced over at Will to see if there was any response. All he saw was a grin.

“I’m serious, dude,” Bart insisted. “I want to kill my family.” Bart smiled as he continued playing his video game. “What do you think would be the best way to go about doing it?”

Will laughed and shook his head. He knew Bart had a warped sense of humor and was just yanking his chain. “You are one sick puppy, my friend.”

Bart nodded. “Okay, if you were going to help me do it, what do you think would be the easiest way of doing it and not getting caught?”

Will decided to play along. “I’d say, having them run off a cliff in the car. Everyone would think it was an accident.”

“Yeah, but you might leave paint marks on their car, or they might not even die from the fall,” Bart countered.

“Well, what about a botched robbery?” Will asked.

“That would probably work much better, because you could have control of the crime scene,” Bart added. “You could have someone wear dark clothes and gloves, so no one could tell what you looked like, and you wouldn’t leave behind any fingerprints. And even if you did, you could wipe them down.”

And on it went.

Bart would later describe these early discussions as “just another evolution of the game that me and Justin and Will were playing, which was to see who could be the worst.”

Will glanced over at Bart. He liked Bart a lot. He was a bit warped, but he knew he was a good guy and a great friend. He simply laughed and repeated, “You are one sick puppy, Bart. One sick puppy, indeed.”

Will and Bart remained good friends, and with Justin as well.

Unfortunately, their triumvirate would be broken up. Will’s penchant for hanging out in his dorm room did not bode well for his academic career. His failure to attend class, much less take final exams, garnered him a one-way ticket out of Baylor after his freshman year. Will packed his bags and took off back home to Little Rock, Arkansas.

Apparently, Bart’s magnetism had a great pull on Will. After working a miserable retail job several months, and still feeling left out of the loop in Little Rock, Will made a bold choice. He wanted to be near friends. He wanted to be near people who understood him. Those two people were Bart Whitaker and Justin Peters. Will packed his bags one more time and made the move back to Waco. He would not attend school at Baylor, but he would be back in the city where his true friends were.

Will spent lots of time with Bart. Just a few months after his return to Waco in the spring of 2000, Will noticed Bart was reverting back to talking about killing his parents.

“I need to talk to you about something,” Bart informed Will one afternoon when he invited him over.

“Sure, man. What is it?” Will replied. He was concerned for his friend because Bart seemed stressed.

“Remember when I used to kid around with you and tell you how I wanted to kill my parents?” Bart quizzed Will.

“Yeah, of course.”

“Remember how you always thought I was kidding around?”

“Yeah, yeah. Of course, you were kidding around.”

“I’m not kidding around anymore,” Bart stated as he looked Will directly in the eyes.

“Hmm?” Will muttered. He was not quite sure what his friend had just told him.

“I’m not kidding around,” Bart said in a stern voice.

Will stopped. He looked at Bart closely. Then he burst out laughing. “Dude, I swear to God, you are one sick motherfucker. You had me going there for a minute. Kill your parents. Your parents are nice, man. Plus, I know you wouldn’t hurt a flea. It’s not in you, man.”

Bart waited patiently while his friend nervously ticked off the reasons why Bart was not going to kill his parents.

“Will, I know you think I’m a big joker, but I am dead serious,” Bart declared. “I need to get rid of my parents. I need to have them killed, and I want you to help me do it.”

Will stood dumbfounded, his mouth literally agape. He had no idea what to say. Finally he piped up with the only thing that came to mind. “Why do you want to kill your parents?”

Bart was ready for the inevitable question. “Because my parents are worth a lot of money, and I want to collect on their insurance.”

Will seemed surprised that Bart had an answer so readily available. “How much money would you get?”

“They’re worth more than a million dollars,” Bart calmly responded. “I would assume at least that much, if not more.”

Will knew Bart did not like his parents. He had no idea, however, that he would seriously entertain the thought of killing them for insurance money, or anything else for that matter.

“I need your help,” Bart said to Will. “I need for you to help me do it.”

“What?” a stunned Will replied. “You want me to help you kill your parents?” Will rubbed his temple, trying to comprehend what in the hell was going on here. Why in the world would one of his best friends truly consider killing his parents, and then, on top of it all, ask him to help him do it?

“Yes,” Bart replied. “I need for you to help me pull this off.” Bart looked at Will in all earnestness.

Will slowly shook his head in the negative. “No, no, no. No way, man. I can’t help you do something like that. It’s your parents, Bart. You don’t hate them enough to kill them. Hell, man, everyone gets sick of their parents from time to time. Some people might even hate their parents. But not yours, man. They’re like fucking Ozzie and Harriet, dude.”

“I’m tired of all their bullshit, Will,” Bart attempted to explain his position. “I told you before, they favor Kevin over me. They always side with him. And they are hypocrites. I can’t stand all the do-gooder bullshit act that they put on. It’s a front. They are nothing like what they portray themselves to be. They go around acting like they’re all super Christian and shit, but it is all a lie. It. Is. A. Lie.”